top fives: good things

And so onto my highlights from this year... 1. good projects I don't talk about my work that much on this blog. Don't know why that is. But I had a few especially good projects this year. I worked with interesting people, did some naming projects, wrote lots of stuff, art directed other bits, worked on Facebook apps, and was the voice of a brand in various social spaces. I enjoyed them, was tested creatively and in other ways, got good feedback (mostly) and learned a lot. Oh, and Contagious magazine said the first one "put shame in the game of many youth brands". I'll take that quite happily. 2. my son's first birthday Milo's birthday weekend was so, so good. The best two days of the year. We went to see Pop at the Tate Modern, and he loved most of it, especially the Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst rooms. The next day we had 40 or so friends and family over for his birthday party. There was cake and there were goody bags, as there should be at every good party. And we got him a trike that he loves. 3. watchmen marketing Watchmen was a transmedia narrative par excellence, with games, mock documentaries, printed stuff, music videos and more springing up around it. The distributed story was so good you almost didn't need to see the movie. 4. robots were awesome

Playful 09 - Gamechanging & Change Through Play

View more presentations from Katy Lindemann.

They really were. There were great things like Chalkbot and Katy's presentations for Interesting and Playful too. 5. slow projects Earlier this year I felt like I was losing track of writing for my own fun. So I've made a point of making time for it. It's starting to pay off too. I enjoyed NaNoWriMo, although I didn't get far. I had a bit of success with Leaf Books and a couple of other things. There have also been Crossrail Pop-up Pop and a bigger thing, which I've often obliquely referred to but never got round to finishing. So maybe that'll show up one day soon. The point is to start these things, even if you may never finish.

crossrail pop-up pop

Rishi and I started something called Crossrail Pop-up Pop recently. Look, here it is: We wanted to create a place where we could gather memories about gigs we've seen at the Astoria, as a sort of tribute, and as a little way of holding the Crossrail and Westminster Council to book over their promise to create a replacement music venue. Firstly we want to make sure that happens. Secondly we want to make sure that it's got enough personality (call it grubbiness, call it patina, call it what you will) that it doesn't just join the pantheon of bland, branded and well lit "entertainment spaces". (I always think you can judge a gig or club venue by the special stickiness of its floor. Something to do with years of spilt beer and sugary drinks, condensation and perspiration. Or something.) Because the Astoria was enormously important to me, growing up as a suburban Londoner. It was where we went to see proper big bands, rather than the sort that played at The Venue in New Cross, our other big indie hang-out of the time. I have a big nostalgic attachment to it for that reason. But we're a bit slow off the mark though. And we could do with your help. So should you wish to, you can share your gig memories from the Astoria or manifestos for the new venue at http://crossrailpopupop.tumblr.com/submit. And you can follow our Crossrailpop Twitter here. Or use the hashtag #tcrcrossrailpopupop. Any or all of those things would be lovely.